An Egyptian trader reads a newspaper at the stock market in Cairo, Egypt, on March 10. / Amr Nabil,AP

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

CAIRO - Each morning before the sun rises, newspapers are delivered across the country, often with blazing criticisms of the Egyptian government and President Mohammed Morsi.

On the newsstands, the competing editions are examples of the free speech and media freedoms that were among the principal gains of the nation's 2-year-old revolt that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak.

But Mubarak-era laws still on the books and government encroachment on freedom of expression is clashing with a government that is embracing some democratic ideals and not others.

"This is an example of the struggle between the old Egypt and the new Egypt," said Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Many Egyptians have enthusiastically seized on the new freedom to say and write what they believe about the government since Mubarak's ouster. But since Morsi was elected president last year, there have been tangible deterioration in press freedoms.

Among them are several criminal prosecutions against journalists made possible by the laws of Mubarak's era.

In one of the most controversial cases, Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef faced investigation for allegedly insulting the president when he hugged a pillow baring an image of Morsi's face and mocked the leader's speeches.

Prosecutors dropped the case eventually but over the past two months the presidency has filed numerous complaints against journalists.

"It's getting worse day after day," said Nihad Aboud, freedom of media and artistic creation programs coordinator at the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, in Egypt.

Repressive laws also extend to insults on religion and over the past several months there has been an increase in the number of blasphemy prosecutions.

Egyptian blogger Alber Saber was recently sentenced to three years in prison for "contempt of religion" after allegedly posting video clips on Facebook that insulted the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Earlier this month, an Egyptian court ordered YouTube banned for 30 days for hosting the same movie, Innocence of Muslims, which led to violent riots across the region last September.

Recently, an Egyptian court banned a television channel that broadcasts belly dancing for provocative content and operating without a license.

"Egypt is heading toward a real breakdown," said Liliane Daoud, a broadcast journalist with the privately owned ONTV.

Daoud believes the fight for free speech could have long-term positive consequences. The more the general public becomes aware of issues related to freer speech and media, the more they will demand it, she said.

Rather than protect speech and media freedoms, the nation's new constitution provides broad limitations on expression and does not protect journalists from being jailed for their work. A new draft law by the Justice Ministry threatens to regulate public gatherings, requiring advance notice for demonstrations and demanding protesters stay away from government buildings, among other conditions.

It seems unlikely that the law's passage could diminish the size and influence of demonstrations, says Ragab Saad, a researcher and managing editor of Rowaq Arabi Journal at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

"If this law is ratified, the real result will be to grant legitimacy to the excessive use of force by security forces in dispersing demonstrations," Saad wrote in a report published by the U.S.-based Atlantic Council, a think tank.

The government pushback against the exercise of freedoms suggests the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government is struggling to rule in a way that protects the same democratic ideals that brought them to power through the polls.

"Of course they don't understand democracy the way we do," said Bahgat Korany, professor of international relations and political economy at the American University in Cairo. "But certainly there is a learning process that has to take place at this level."

"It is a group whose mind-set is not liberal, open enough," Korany said. "Some of those that I have talked to think of things as two categories: black or white. The idea of relative thinking is almost absent."

Mansour of the Committee to Protect Journalists said Egypt's leaders might not understand the difference between democracy in terms of elections and democracy as it relates to principles.

"They might have been confused that by dealing with power, you will get absolute authority to run things the way you see fit," Mansour said. "That's a very fine line."

Yet many believe that there is no going back, no matter what the government does. Recently, a handful of news outlets refused to publish for a day in protest over lack of media protections and attempts to limit expression.

"What I'm seeing from friends, journalists, people around me â?? people are not scared," Daoud said. "It's going to be a relatively long battle, but we are not going back. I don't think the whole Arab world will go back."

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